"BYE" 2007 Obituary

BYERS o@ca.on.grey_county.owen_sound.the_sun_times 2007-01-08 published
BRAY,
Julia (née
HOATH)
Of Golden Dawn Nursing Home, Lions head passed away peacefully
on Saturday, January 6, 2007 in her 94th year. Beloved wife of
Claren BAKER of Lions Head. She will be missed by sisters Inez
BYERS and Iva (Maurice)
FLETCHER both of Kitchener, sister-in-law
Marion HOATH of Wiarton and Verniece
BAKER and step-daughters
Ruth BAKER (Dave
MUNN), Mary
BAKER (Ron
DEMARS), Evelyn (Melvin)
McCUTCHEON and Leona (Murray)
BAIN.
Julia is also survived by
several nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her first
husband Byron
BRAY, parents Tom and Mae
HOATH of Hope Ness, brother
Lloyd HOATH, sisters Gertrude (James)
SHAW,
Alma
(Bill)
PILKEY
and Eva (Mansell)
SCHALM and brother-in-law Austin
BYERS.
The
family will receive Friends at the Bethel Missionary Church,
18 Ferndale Road, Lions head on Tuesday, January 9, 2007 from
1: 00 p.m. until the time of the service to celebrate Julia's
life at 2: 00 p.m. with Pastor Charles
GINGERICH officiating.
Interment Eastnor Cemetery. Arrangements entrusted to the George
Funeral Home, Wiarton. As expressions of sympathy, donations
made to the Bethel Missionary Church or Golden Dawn Nursing Home
would be appreciated by the family. Condolences may be left for
the family at www.georgefuneralhome.com

BYERS o@ca.on.grey_county.owen_sound.the_sun_times 2007-08-02 published
Man charged with murder in brother's death
Police release few details about 18-year-old's death
By Doug EDGAR,
Thursday,August 02, 2007
One brother is dead and another is charged with his murder after
Ontario Provincial Police officers were called to a home in the
former Kincardine Township Tuesday night.
John Robert
FORRESTER, 18, is dead and Asa John
FORRESTER, 22,
is charged with second degree murder, South Bruce Ontario Provincial
Police said in a news release Wednesday.
Officers from the detachment and Bruce County paramedics were
called to the
FORRESTER home on Concession Road 5 of the former
KincardineTownship,Const. Jeff
MERCEY said Wednesday afternoon.
"It came through dispatch in London as a call for assistance
just prior to midnight," he said.
They found John
FORRESTER "with critical injuries,"
MERCEY said
in a news release.
The teen was immediately taken to hospital in Kincardine, where
he died of his injuries.
MERCEY said he could not comment on the nature of the younger
FORRESTER's injuries, since the information could be evidence,
nor could he comment on what happened before police were called.
"We're still investigating that," he said. "There isn't a lot
of information we can release."
John FORRESTER attended Kincardine District Secondary School,
where he took part in athletics including track and field and
hockey.
"He had just successfully graduated in June," Kincardine District
SecondarySchool principal Dan
HOBLER said Wednesday evening.
The school cafeteria was to open at 9 a.m. today for students
or others who might want help dealing with
FORRESTER's death.
The school board's tragic response team was to be there.
"We don't know much detail,"
HOBLER said. "We just want to be
there for anyone who needs it."
The news came as a shock, said Tanya
BYERS, who coached John
FORRESTER in Grade 9, when he reached the Ontario Federation
of School Athletic Associations regionals in midget hurdles,
and again this spring, when he trained in shot put and discus.
While they were not close,
BYERS said
FORRESTER had said he wanted
to be a helicopter pilot.
"He was a pleasure to coach," she said. "He was a very likeable
guy.Asa" John
FORRESTER was to make a court appearance in Walkerton
Wednesday afternoon and would likely be back in court today,
MERCEY said.
The investigation is being directed by Det.-Insp. Bill
RENTON
of the Ontario Provincial Police's criminal investigation branch,
with help from South Bruce detachment officers. An Ontario Provincial
Police forensic identification unit based in Mount Forest has
also been called in.
"We still have police at the scene,"
MERCEY said late Wednesday
afternoon.
The last homicide investigation in the Kincardine detachment
area was in 1994, he said.
John FORRESTER was a student at Kincardine District Secondary
school, where he competed in track and field events.

BYERS o@ca.on.grey_county.owen_sound.the_sun_times 2007-08-25 published
BARFOOT,
Betty (née
DOHERTY)
Peacefully, at the Grey Bruce Regional Health Services in Owen
Sound, on Thursday August 23rd, 2007. Betty
BARFOOT (née
DOHERTY,)
of Owen Sound, in her 77th year. Beloved wife of the late Allan
BARFOOT (2007.) Loving mother of Bill (Joan)
BARFOOT, of Owen
Sound, Nancy (Art)
COPELAND, of Point Clark, Dave (Ginny
HARDY)
BARFOOT, and Sue
BYERS, both of Owen Sound. Proud grandmother
of Amy, Matthew, Kristen, Chandra, Chad, Jake, Kaydee and Brooke,
and great-grandmother of Zachary and Colin. Dear sister of Glen
(Pat) DOHERTY,
Bob
(Kathy)
DOHERTY, and sister-in-law of Josie
DOHERTY, all of Owen Sound. Missed by her uncle Reg
BARFOOT,
and by many nieces and nephews. Mother-in-law of Marc
BYERS.
Predeceased by her parents Stan and Georgina
DOHERTY, her brothers
Tom, John and William
DOHERTY, and by her granddaughter Cara
BARFOOT.
Friends may call at the Brian E. Wood Funeral Home,
250 - 14th Street West, Owen Sound (519-376-7492) on Sunday from
2: 00-4:00 and 7:00-9:00 p.m.. A funeral service for Betty
BARFOOT
will be held in the Funeral Home Chapel on Monday, August 27th,
2007 at 11: 00 a.m. with Major Grace
YOUNG officiating. Interment
in Greenwood Cemetery. If so desired, the family would appreciate
donations to the Salvation Army or the charity of your choice
as your expression of sympathy.

BYERS o@ca.on.grey_county.owen_sound.the_sun_times 2007-12-20 published
BYERS,
SeanPaul
In his sleep, on Dundas St. in London, in his 29th year. son
of Maurice Paul
BYERS of Owen Sound and his wife
AnitaMEMERY,
and Myra Marie
GARNETT of Chatham. Sean is survived by his parents,
daughter Victoria
BYERS
(RITCHIE,) stepfather David
GARNETT
brother Cory of London, brothers Colin, Philip, Richard and Michael
and sisters Stephanie, of Chatham and Lisa Marie
BYERS-
WINGET
of Courtnay, British Columbia, step-sister Kylie
MEMERY and step-brother
Chris MEMERY, both of Owen Sound. Also survived by Grandmother
Grace CRAIG and aunt Cindy
(CRAIG)
DALEY, aunts Sandra
(BYERS)
BROWN of Owen Sound and Linda
BYERS of Port Elgin, and uncles
Joseph of Radley, Sasketchewan; Lorne of Hanover, Michael and
Timothy both of Port Elgin. Predeceased by Grandfathers Lawrence
BYERS and Lionel
CRAIG, Grandmother Mabel
(WATKINS)
BYERS and
brother Paul Maurice
BYERS.
Visitation was at the James A. Harris
Funeral Home, 220 James St. at Richmond in London, from 2-4 and
from 7-9 on Sunday December 16. Funeral Service was held at the
James A. Harris Funeral Home on Monday December 17 at 11am.

BYERS o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2007-01-13 published
BYERS,
Jim
We wish to express our deep appreciation to our relatives, Friends
and neighbours for the sympathy extended to our family at Jim's
passing and for the floral tributes and many charitable donations.
We thank Rev. Art
CHOLMONDELEY and the ladies of Crumlin United
Church Women for the fine reception. Special thanks to Jim's
"Ladies" at Chelsey Park for their care and compassion and also
Amy VANBELLE at Forest Lawn for her assistance. -- Betty
BYERS
and family.

BYERS o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2007-12-20 published
BYERS strummed a happy tune
By Randy RICHMOND, Sun Media, Thurs., December 20, 2007
The people of the street gathered for a Christmas party and Sean
BYERS was there, of course.
Eating platefuls of food, making people laugh, he won the Christmas
carol trivia contest at the party run by Streetlight.
Each player got more points for singing the answers and even
more points for getting everyone to sing along.
"Sean got everyone singing," remembers Gil
CLELLAND, the director
of Streetlight ministry.
When CLELLAND went home that night, Tuesday, December 11, he
thought of the joy at the gathering.
"I thought maybe this is that peace that we all hear about at
Christmas," he said.
Then came Wednesday.
"And I thought, where is that peace today? I asked God. Where
are you? What happened?"
What happened?
BYERS left the party and went to a Unity Project crash bed that
night.
Sometime the next morning he left the shelter, then snuck back
in. A worker found him in a locked bathroom.
Maybe BYERS, 28, took his own life. Maybe it was an accident.
The needle never cares.
The death of the engaging young man has rattled the street to
its supposedly hardened core. More than 100 people, from the
homeless to the workers helping them, gathered at the Central
Library this week to remember.
"Sean was a really awesome guy," said Trevor
JOHNSON, a transition
services manager at Youth Action Centre.
"He was generous, very well spoken, very well read, intelligent.
He struggled at times and made mistakes."
It's hard to pinpoint where and when the struggle began, his
mother, Myra
GARNETT, told The Free Press. There were problems
at home that hit her son hard, she admitted.
"He was a very, very thoughtful boy."
Although he was identified as a gifted pupil in Grade 1,
BYERS
struggled later in school and by 15 had dropped out and left
home. He took the roads so many lost boys take, sometimes turning
to drugs and petty crime that led to jail, sometimes trying to
make it, getting a job and treatment for his growing addiction.
No matter which way he turned, he played guitar or sketched,
and cared for others.
"No matter how much pain he was in, he would see someone else
and reach right through his pain to theirs,"
GARNETT said.
JOHNSON joined the Youth Action Centre about 10 years ago and
met BYERS, who was doing volunteer work.
BYERS would make ends
meet by busking at the market or on weekend nights outside the
bars on Richmond Row.
The memorial service was held at the library because he loved
books so much,
JOHNSON said.
"Give him his coffee, his paper, a smoke and his guitar and he
was a happy guy."
BYERS always put on a smiling face to the world. But when he
was really down, he took his guitar to the park and played,
JOHNSON
said.
BYERS and a few other young men his age all became hooked on
the needle and hung around together.
One of those men was Jay
DUCKWORTH, a Saint Thomas resident, who
died December 8. He, too, was remembered this week.
"Although they struggled with self-medicating, they had strong
spirits," Jim
WATKIN, executive director of the London Harm Reduction
Coalition, said at the service.
"You would see it in their eyes. That is what we need to remember.
It is not about shame or guilt. We need to get rid of that. We
need to let our spirits flourish."
The world looks at the Seans and the Jays as addicts and nothing
more, said Matti
PAQUIN, once an addict and now a worker at the
Unity Project shelter.
"I loved those two boys. They were good people who tended to
do drugs."
But their deaths must serve as a warning, others said at the
memorial service.
"I cared for these guys for a long time. I hoped a miracle would
happen and these men would excel," said Lawrence
BOOM of Street
Connection, a drop-in centre. "We have to come to terms with
this. We have to start looking at drug addiction as an illness,
not a weakness."
Over the next few months, city council will wrestle with questions
of where to spend this year's budget. The city's community services
department wants politicians to spend more money helping the
homeless and the addicted.
The people of the street think the government should do more
to help as well. In the meantime, they will continue to help
each other the best they can. They will gather.
"I think that is where the peace is today,"
CLELLAND said, his
voice breaking with grief at the memorial service.
"The peace we seek at Christmas is that in these tough moments
we don't leave each other alone. When we say, 'I need you in
my life right now.' "
Who To Call
If you need help:
Youth Action Centre: 519-434-6500
Street Connection: 519-438-7300
Streetlight (Youth for Christ) 686-0093
If you or someone you know is suicidal:
- Distress Centre (24 hours), 667-6711, 667-6600
- London Mental Health Crisis Service (24 hours), 519-433-2023
- Canadian Mental Health Association, 519-434-9191
- Mother Reach Postpartum Depression Line, 519-672-4673

BYERS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-05-31 published
McMURDO,
RobertDavid
Bob loved life, lived it to the fullest, and so it is with great
sadness that we announce his passing at home with his family
on May 26th, 2007, after a brief illness. With his wonderful
sense of humour, Bob brought smiles to everyone he touched. Beloved
husband and companion to Libby for 53 years. Dear friend and
father to Jeffrey (Susan) and Janice (Les). Loving stepgrandfather
to Kyle, Lindsay, Helen and Aidan. Devoted pal to Duffy. Predeceased
by his sister Norma
BYERS
(Harold.)
Bob graduated from the University
of Western Ontario School of Business in 1953. After two years
with Canadian Pittsburg Industries in Toronto, he joined McKay-Cocker
Construction Ltd. of London, Ontario and was President from 1974 to
1991. During these years he served as Chairman and President
for many construction associations. Following retirement from
McKay-Cocker, Bob became Vice-Chair and joint Chief Executive
Officer for the Workplace Health and Safety Agency in Toronto,
representing management. He held that position from early 1992 to
June 1994. During his years in London, Bob enjoyed golfing at
the London Hunt and Country Club but, on full retirement in 1994,
his love of cottaging and fishing on the French River became
his main interests. Our special thanks to the Community Care
nurses and
to Doctor Larry
McCUTCHEON.
The family will receive Friends
at the Nicholls Funeral Home, 330 Midland Avenue, Midland, 705-526-5449,
on Friday, June 1st, 2007 from 4-6 p.m. A memorial service will
be held in the chapel on Saturday, June 2nd at 2: 30 p.m. Interment
later in the family plot in London, Ontario. In lieu of flowers,
donations to the Huronia Hospitals Foundation, the Canadian Cancer
Society or your charity of choice would be appreciated.

BYERS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-06-07 published
Charmer, rascal, film producer, ad pioneer
He had hit movies and renegade ideas, but was best at making
the deals, writes Sandra
MARTIN
By Sandra MARTIN,
Page S9
An advertising and film pioneer, Peter
SIMPSON loved making deals
and bringing projects together, but he hated the red tape that
is so much a part of the Canadian film industry.
He was a charmer and a rascal who loved talking, drinking and
eating, but he also expanded the business of filmmaking in Canada
and probably hired more actors, directors and technical people
than any other producer. His credits range from establishing
the first international media buying agency to producing horror
films such as the Prom Night franchise to Regeneration (based
on novelist Pat Barker's trilogy) to the CTV television series
The Eleventh Hour.
Vancouver-born actor Jason Priestly met Mr.
SIMPSON in Los Angeles
in 1997 about a role in The Highwayman, the first of four films
the two made together. "He had an incredible ability to walk
into a room and sell people on a project," Mr. Priestly said.
Although they met through work, they became Friends. "He was
an incredibly avuncular and jovial man. He loved to laugh, to
eat sushi and to drink Heineken. He was a spectacular man."
Peter SIMPSON was born in Port Glasgow, Scotland, the youngest
of three sons of a grocer. His father immigrated to Toronto in
1952 and found a job at Eaton's and a place to live in Downsview,
in the northern part of Toronto. His mother arrived at the end
of the school year with 10-year-old Peter and his brothers. A sister,
Marjorie, who died in a car accident in 1969, was born in Canada.
After graduating from high school, Peter attended the University
of Toronto, but left to work as a junior buyer for the Young and
Rubicam advertising agency.
That's where he met David
HARRISON, another "renegade" who shared
his love of the zeitgeist, Heineken and the ad business. Mr.
SIMPSON
quickly moved on to Ogilvy and Mather, then became media director
at Stanfield, Johnson and Hill.
During this period, Mr.
SIMPSON met and married his first wife,
Gordene BYERS.
Together, they had four sons: Kerry, Brock, Colin
and Bradley. After 14 years, the marriage broke up. In the mid-1980s,
Mr. SIMPSON married television producer Ilana
FRANK.
They had
two children: daughter Quinn and son Hayden.
In the 1960s, ad agencies created ads, planned campaigns and
placed ads, but the business was getting too complex for this
concentration to be efficient. Mr.
SIMPSON had the idea to separate
these functions and, in 1969, he founded Media Buying Services
to purchase advertising space and time for clients. "He was the
pioneer," Mr.
HARRISON said. "He was a very important guy in
the entertainment business."
Media Buying Services quickly acquired clients such as Playtex,
Dominion Stores and K-tel, a Winnipeg company headed by Philip
Kives that was opening an office in Britain.
"The expertise Peter put in place was not a small factor in the
success of K-tel, first in the United Kingdom and then all over
Europe," said Ian Howard, the first managing director of K-tel
International (UK) Ltd., in an e-mail message. "I could never
have concentrated on the rapid growth of the company if the television
buying was also a part of the infrastructure." Within five years
of its founding, Media Buying Services had seven offices in Canada,
Britain and the United States.
By the early 1970s, Mr.
SIMPSON had moved into the film promotion
business and was spending a lot of time in Los Angeles. After
forming Norstar Filmed Entertainment, he started making movies.
He became a pioneer again, in making made-for-television movies
such as The Sea Gypsies, which he sold to Warner Brothers and
which earned a 30-per-cent share when it was broadcast on NBC.
His second film was an even bigger success. Prom Night, which
borrowed on the success of Brian de Palma's 1976 film Carrie,
starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielson. Released in 1980,
it was unabashedly commercial, spawned three sequels and set
Canadian film box-office records.
From promotion to production to distribution, Mr.
SIMPSON was
involved in every part of the nascent Canadian film business,
including the Toronto Film Festival, where he served on the board
from 1981 to 1990. That's one of the ways he came to know another
Scottish immigrant, filmmaker Bill
MARSHALL.
"When I started the film festival," Mr.
MARSHALL recalled in
a telephone conversation, "we used to have a daily session that
was on Rogers [cable television] and Peter and I would drink
Heineken and excoriate the industry," including the television
networks, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission and the federal Telefilm funding agency. "Nobody was
safe from our rude and grumpy comments."
They wanted to make films, and railed at public officials who
weren't eager to finance their projects, no questions asked.
"He wouldn't do anything unless it was his way," Mr.
MARSHALL
said.
"His first big hit was Prom Night, so he always thought he was
a great movie picker," Mr.
MARSHALL said. But what he was really
good at was putting the financing together - although he "was
never very good at getting money out of Telefilm." For one of
his films, he put in the credits that it was made "in spite of
the Canadian Film Development Corporation," Telefilm's earlier
name.
Despite that conflict, "I always enjoyed my encounters with Peter
SIMPSON. He was as frisky as they come," said filmmaker Peter
Pearson, Telefilm's executive director from 1985 to 1987.
Politically, Mr.
SIMPSON supported the Progressive Conservative
Party. In the 1980s, when Brian Mulroney was prime minister,
Mr. SIMPSON and partner Roger Nantel of Montreal set up Media
Canada, which won a contract to place all federal government
advertising in newspapers and magazines and on radio and television.
In all, Mr.
SIMPSON made close to 40 movies and television films,
including The Rage, Men with Guns, Pale Saints, Grizzly Falls
and Cold Comfort. He was nominated for the Alexander Korda Award
for best British film for Regeneration in 1998, won a Gemini
for The Eleventh Hour in 2005 and received a Lifetime Achievement
Award for his "unwavering commitment" from the Academy of Canadian
Cinema in 2004.
Although he gave up smoking two decades ago, he was diagnosed
with lung cancer last September. Treatment failed to defeat the
disease, and it was evident by February that the cancer was spreading.
Even so, Mr.
SIMPSON was keenly involved in putting together
a television movie about comedian John Candy before he was admitted
to hospital about two weeks ago.
Peter SIMPSON was born in Port Glasgow, Scotland, on May 29,
1943. He died at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto on June 5,
2007. He was 64. He leaves his second wife, Ilana Frank, six
children and three brothers. A private funeral is planned, to
be followed by a memorial service in September.

BYERS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-09-18 published
BYERS,
Marvin "
Marv"
Peacefully, in Kingston, Sunday, September 16, 2007, at the age
of 77. Beloved husband of the late Elizabeth "Betty"
KELLY.
Loving
father of Ross (Dianne) of Toronto and Scott (Debbie) of Kingston.
Dear brother of Grace
PHILLIPS,
HelenSMITH and Delmer
BYERS.
Friends may pay respects at the Kelly Funeral Home, 585 Somerset
St. W. (Centretown), Ottawa, Wednesday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m.
Funeral Thursday to Saint Margaret-Mary's Church for Mass of Christian
Funeral at 11 a.m. Interment St. Brigid's Cemetery, Manotick.
In memoriam donations to the Alzheimer Society appreciated. Kelly
Funeral Home (613) 235-6712